A good year?

[Holly]

Hello grapes,

Has it been a good summer harvest so far? What have been the highlights and what have you learned for next time around? Any total distasters? Any surprise successes? Tell us everything, for our harvesters poll in October.

Thanks very much and keep picking! Holly


Your comments may be edited and printed in the October issue of GYO magazine

[Aberdeenplotter]

With the weather in April being unseasonably warm, it looked as though a super season was in sight but unfortunately that was followed by rain and wind and more rain and more wind. That in itself wouldn't have been so bad but we also had many nights with very low temperatures and a very late frost. Despite this, most things in the plot have performed very well and the soft fruit has been early and exceptionally good. Having said that, my long carrots grown for exhibition germinated well and the tops grew to about an inch and then stopped, I suspect stunted by the cold night temperatures. Onions and shallots grown outside have been very slow to develop although those in the polytunnel have been really good. All in all, very little to complain about and of course there is always next year

[Creemteez]

The Good: Mange Tout, Beetroot, Pentland Javelin Spuds, Basil, Parsley, Courgettes, Onions (Sturton), Shallots (Golden Globe), Carrots (Ten yards of old net curtains say the carrots are MINE, carrot fly!!!)
So Far, So Good: Tomatoes. Fingers crossed I may get some this year before blight gets 'em (Have I just put the Kybosh on them?), Runner Beans - looks like it's going to be another bumper crop this year. Globe Artichokes - considering they are this years plants they've done well. King Edward and Pink Fir Apple Spuds - again fingers crossed that the dreaded "B" word doesn't raise it's ugly head too soon!
The Bad: Red Baron Onions - bolted to a man.
The Ugly: Garlic was disappointing. Small bulbs - not enough rain during April.
The Completely Insane: Self sown Pumpkins are taking over! If they all come good I shall be eating them well into the new year!
Lessons learned: Provide better, higher support for the Peas next year -also plant in sunnier part of the lottie. Buy heat treated red onion sets - or sow seed. - Apparently they are less likely to bolt. DO NOT put Pumpkin seeds into the compost bin!!!!!

[morverngirl]

My first season and I have been delighted with it all. Dry spring and summer have resulted in bulging biceps while I carry can after can of water to plot (fortunately on a short distance). Broad beans and peas have excelled themselves, I must do more sucession planning of BB for freezer. Potatoes are now at chest height and happily lots of potatoes underneath too- I used a dipper to plant the earlies and made trenches for MC, I put bought compost ,potato fertiliser and slug pellets in holes/trenches.My onions ,garlic and shallots all have a number with white rot but still a hugh crop with the overwintered ones bolting. Everything else I am truely happy with.

[dave_norm_smith]

Its a little early to tell but it does seem to be shaping up nicely. The lack of sun seems to have ground the tomatoes and chillies to a halt but I have had crops or hope to from most of the plot. However, again I seem to have got nowhere with my sweetcorn- 2 foot high and all stop?

Dave

[VirginVegGrower]

Tomaoes, potatoes, peppers, beans, peas, carrots, beetroot, turnips, courgettes all cropped heavily. Lost my shallots and a few onions with pest disease. My leeks, French and runner beans, squashes, sweetcorn all coming along. Brassicas looking strong too. Parsnips suffered from lousy germination.
The weather was predictably British! Early sun brought on seedlings, meaning planting out came at the wet and windy early Summer time...grrr! This has caused me some damage and loss of crop.

[HeyWayne]

Onions are more like shallots with the lack of rain early on in their growing season I think. Rhubarb cropped for a short period - I think the rest of my failures are less to do wit.h climate, and more to do with attention - or lack of.

[salilah]

Overall a good crop so far - but strange! The overwintering veg and salad in the (unheated) greenhouse were fantastic - but the early mangetout inside was late. The outside mangetout was great, early and very prolific - but the purple podded peas were limited in number. Most salad outside has been wonderful - but one guttering failed part-way through. Courgettes on the whole are wonderful (including 4 climbers which are rampant!), chard and beetroot good (though chard is slow). Some strawberries great - others nothing. Birds got the few gooseberries, no redcurrants; broad beans started really well then stopped half-way up the stems! Greenhouse tomatoes are slow - behind the outdoor ones - but the potatoes are done (even the maincrop (Orla) seems to have finished!).
All very strange...

[Florence Fennel]

Ask me in September, I've nothing to harvest yet. Oh and I drowned my tomatoes back in the Spring so have yet to see if they will give me any fruit. There are a few flowers, but not nearly as many as last year. Everything else just seems so slow this year.

[StephenH]

Tomatoes: total disaster. Many died off, and the survivors were still only at the two-true-leaves stage when they should have been flowering. This may be because I sowed them in home-made seed medium for the first time (a 50-50 mix of compost and leafmould), and it may not have had enough nutrient in it.
Peas and beans: fantastic, as always.
Kale: good.
Cabbages: the ones that survived are getting pretty big, but many didn't.
Onions from seed: again, not all survived, probably because I planted them out too soon, but the ones that have survived are looking pretty big. (Variety: 'Ailsa Craig'.)
Shallots and Elephant garlic: excellent. The garlic top-growth is HUGE! I hope the bulbs are commensurately big when I harvest them.
Courgettes ('Lungo di Fiorentino'): only one plant, of three planted out, survived slug attack (again, maybe I should've let them get bigger before planting out, and also put down organic slug-bait before an attack happened), but the survivor is looking good.

[planetologist]

I haven't voted, because you win some and you lose some. The lack of rain in spring has meant that the annuals did poorly, and I've eaten more perennial greens than I would have liked to. It has also meant that the soft fruit ripened a month early and have done and are doing great. Since June we've had quite enough rain, and so far that has meant that the annuals and biennials have picked up, and I'm hoping that the winter veg that I've resown will have enough time left to grow and last till the perennials pick up again (what others sometimes call the hungry gap).

[Thelma Sanders]

My early sowing of SugarAnne snap peas were a write off....they only grew to about 18in and the yield was pathetic despite watering....last year I had loads in the freezer, but I have none this year;(
Alderman tall peas planted 2weeks later have been really good
Early caulis likewise the largest head was 3 ins
Toms and cougrettes/squash/pumpkins germinated well in the early warm weather and then seemed to stop for a month or more...just starting to move now.

Cabbages have been brilliant so far, good job cos I'm eating them in salad instead of lettuce which is bolting!
Not sure of the sweetcorn - the plants look great but germination looks patchy, high winds and rain at germination time, exactly the same as last year I planted a few plants a couple of weeks later so the pollination may sort itself out. Fingers crossed.
Not a good year, but it could have been worse, I s'pose!

[SarzWix]

On balance, it's been a pretty good year, although the deciding crops will be maincrop potatoes and onions which are yet to mature.

Salad potatoes have been great, although they were all a little late and the lack of water in late spring lowered the yield of the 1st Earlies, the 2nd Earlies have more than made up for it. Charlotte has been a star performer, with Blue Danube making it onto the list of 'must grows for next year'. Harlequin, an early maincrop, are being harvested now and proving again that they're a great-tasting, high-yielding marvel

Cucumbers, after a slow start, are dripping off the plants now and I'm eating the mini ones in one go like apples.

Strawberries were fantastic earlier in the season, I think we had about 10 kilos from one big bed, and a couple of kilos from the small one. We still have some sliced and frozen to use in desserts later.

Sweetcorn is a triumph this year, after 3 years of abject failure. The plants are now taller than me (admittedly that's not difficult ), and I have high hopes of getting at least 5 decent cobs, so we can all have one. That will be 5 more cobs than I got last year!

On the down-side: My over-wintered onions were a total waste of space, not one got to bigger than pickling size and most bolted before that point.
Raspberries planted last year didn't make it through the winter and then dry spring, and I ended up with about 1 row of canes left between 3 rows planted. Then to add insult to injury, the birds pinched the few berries there was.
Peas and early lettuces both suffered really badly from sparrow attacks. The peas did finally recover, but a third of the plants didn't make it, so we won't have many to freeze for later use.
Early lettuces were ruined by sparrows, later ones are not hearting for some reason. But they're still edible.
Tomatoes are doing well now, but some trauma or other has made virtually every plant drop the flowers on the 2nd or 3rd truss. I think the pollen on those trusses may have been damaged by high temperature in the greenhouse. I've allowed a side-shoot to develop in the joint nearest that truss to try and make up for the loss though.

[taff]

Potatoes in the ground, first year, great, even as closely planted as they were [grass clippings as cover I was a bit dubious about, thinking that maybe it would be a bit wet, but it wasn't and they worked really well, thanks for the tip]. Lettuce, especially the cos lettuce, are huge, no slug damage and have hearted up, now i can see how much waste there is from a from a cos type supermarket lettuce, they've cut half the leaves off. Courgettes, rampant. Runner beans, broad beans are making/did make a heavy harvest. Proper carrots for the first time, and the spring onions germinated and grew for the first time in the garden. Copious amounts of beetroot, shallots were huge. The chard went nuts. Chillies and basil are looking really good, so too the aubergines. The self-seeded borage is everywhere, the lovage grew enormous, and lots of plums on the very small plum tree, it's also sent out a few new branches so hopefully it'll balance itself out next year. The marigolds are actually continuously flowering instead of just the once last year. The salad burnett picked up really well.
Garlic was small and weedy, squash have failed to do much of anything but showing signs of picking up, but I think it's a bit late, celeriac is tiny and will probably be the size of ping pong balls. Peas were a complete non-starter and the parsnips failed to germinate. The accidental peach got leaf curl.

[arpoet]

I have not voted as like others i have mixed results...
ealy and second tatties very low yeald, but nice..
Cabbages super... best year so far
White onions seem to coming on a treat, but red a total crop failure.
Peas rubbish
beetroot rubbish
Braodbeans ok, but not the best
runner and climbing french all starting to produce, but much later than norm
Carrots and snips in raised beds (old wardrobes), fantastic
Rhubarb.. nowt to speak of.
plums and apples will be the best year ever.
Caulies.. YUK!
Just planted winter cabbages and sprouts where the early tatties were.
Weeds... Wow... never seen so many
Roger